“Like it’s a secret?” She grins, her eyes sparkling. “And hey, I made you smile. Score for Mags. Haven’t seen your smile since you came back. For shame, girl.”
I ponder her words as we search for a table, an impossible mission until Maggie locates two chairs and we sit with a group of unfamiliar faces.
“You don’t mind guys?” she chirps, grinning at them manically, and they shake their heads. They’re teenagers, probably half my age, too busy bitching about school than pay much attention to us.
God, I feel old with my twenty-five years of experience. Old and sad.
“And there it is again: that long face you’ve been wearing for the past months.” Maggie leans over the table, mashing her boobs against the top, and stares me dead in the eye. “What’s going on, Hail? I thought you were getting better.”
“Better?” I scoff. “I’m fine.”
“Uh-huh.” She leans back, digs her spoon into her unicorn rainbow sugary drink. I’m getting a toothache just looking at it.
Okay, maybe I am more grouchy than usual. And there’s a reason.
“It’s Trent,” I say, opening a sachet and pouring sugar into my cappuccino because why look after your waistline when you don’t care who sees you? “He’s been texting, and calling.”
“Trent the Douche? Seriously, again?”
I told her he texted me a couple of times. “He’s very…insistent.”
“What does he want?”
“To talk to me.”
She shoots me a dubious look. “You believe that?”
I shrug. No idea what I believe anymore.
“I guess everyone deserves to tell his story,” ?aggie mutters thoughtfully. “Right?”
I frown. Do they? “If you’re talking about Kaden—”
“I’m not. I’m not! Okay!” She lifts her hands and arches her brows in a show of innocence I’m not buying for a minute. “Trent. Tell me about Trent.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I hedge, still upset, and not sure why.
Maybe because my bestie seems to think I should call Kaden, talk to him.
Which is out of the question.
Nope.
No way. Not going there again. Because…
Because no matter how I tried to protect my heart, it hurts regardless. It frigging aches. It feels as if it’s been bleeding in my chest ever since I left Kansas City.
As if I’m slowly bleeding out, bleeding out dreams.
Chapter Three
Kaden
Look, you left a blouse in my drawer, you know that red one I gave you on your birthday? I’m gonna send it to you because it gets me hard every time I smell your scent on it, and I fucking can’t…I can’t… Dammit.
[unsent text message]
My neighbor likes to listen to loud rock music. His name is Jared and he’s a big fan of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Black Sabbath. Not that you’d guess it by looking at him. He’s a neat and proper little freak, an accountant in some big firm or other, always in a suit and a tie, clean-shaven and his hair combed back.